Football: Moncton CFL game creates possibilities

You might love the quote from Brent Scrimshaw, one of the organizers of the Edmonton Eskimos-Toronto Argonauts CFL game which will be held in Moncton:

"Our focus will be in two places from here onward. One is to build up the game itself and all the festival events around it. Two is to build up the Argonauts as the home team for this game in Moncton.

"I think part of it will be the presence of the Argonauts in the community. Our hope is to have a number of their team officials and players come to Moncton over the next few months. They've stated that their goal is to be adopted as Moncton's home team."

The obvious snark: would that be for one game, or permanently?

Events in the pro game affect CIS football. This is just a fun idea, but if you accept that the NFL putting a team in Toronto is just a matter of when, then one could envision the league focusing on having one strong Southern Ontario franchise and working toward the creating a truly coast-to-coast 10-team league. Put a team in the Maritimes, revive Ottawa and look at Saskatoon. Again, just a suggestion.

Also, another modest proposal: The U de Moncton starts an AUS football program.

4 comments:

The CFL should look at a team in the Maritimes as well as Ottawa definately with the Hunt ownership group. Saskatoon seems like a stretch, but the other place the CFL should look at is Québec. Québec would make for an interesting rival for Montréal.

Just another suggestion instead of looking at Saskatoon and Moncton, two relatively small cities, one of which doesn't even have a university football team to start with... What about a city 3 times the size of Saskatoon and 5 times the size of Moncton with the best fan base of university football aross Canada. Is the CFL blind or just snobing Québec City for some curious reasons (like the fact that it's a francophone city)?!?

I agree with Sylven - Quebec City is a much better candidate for the CFL then Saskatoon. Even at 250,000, Saskatoon is a good 200,000 from being able to support a professional football team.

I don't want to see a CFL team here, anyway. Since the Roughriders started winning and became popular, the Rams' attendance has plummeted, and I don't want to see anything erode the Huskies' fanbase that the Huskies, the Huskies Football Foundation and Huskie Alumni have worked hard to build.

That said, CFL expansion would definitely benefit the CIS with more professional opportunities avaialble for football players. However, if the rumors are true and the CFL cuts the designated Canadian roster spots, more teams in NFL light won't do much good.

Before they consider expansion, the CFL should increase the number of roster spots for Canadians and make a real investment in developing Canadian football, from the CIS on down.

I think we will see U de M and UNB with AUS football programs in the very near future. I think it's a bit premature to suggest that a market even exists for a CFL team in the Maritimes, though. As an ex-pat New Brunswicker/Nova Scotian living in the Prairies, I just don't see the interest in the CFL anywhere in the Maritimes as in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.